Clary stared numbly at the message displayed on her screen CALL ENDED, an awful feeling of dread growing in her stomach. She had the sense to hit the number 1 on the keypad to speed dial her home phone, but the call simply rang on unanswered, and with each ring she grew more panicked. Why would her mom hang up like that?
"Uh, Clary?" Isabelle, who Clary had almost forgotten was there asked "Are you okay? What's going on?"
But Clary couldn't answer her right now, barely registering her words, too busy redialing the number, as her hands began to shake uncontrollably. So much so that her phone actually slipped from her hands, landing with a crash on the concrete floor. Clary scrambled to retrieve it but it was beyond dead, a large crack streaming through the now black screen.
"Dammit!" she said, as tears started to run down her cheeks. She threw the phone back down in anger.
"Stop" Isabelle said, grabbing her arm and hauling her upright. "Listen to me. I can help you, okay? Just tell me what's going on"
Clary looked up at the girl's face, whose expression seemed fierce and genuinely concerned, gone was her snark and condescending look, and decided to tell her.
"My mom, she said someone found her, I just don't know who or what...There was this noise in the background, and glass breaking..." Clary's voice began to tremble as she trailed off, imagining all the horrible possibilities.
Get a grip, she told herself, regaining her senses and adding with urgency "Your phone, give it to me. I gotta call the police"
The girl looked sorry. Why did she look sorry?
"I don't actually have one, there's no need for it…"
Clary didn't wait for the rest of her sentence, already rushing off at full speed towards her house, her sneakers pounding on the pavement. What kind of teenager doesn't have a phone in this day and age? Clary thought to herself absentmindedly, wondering if perhaps Isabelle had lied, but something told her the strange girl really didn't have one.
The night in Brooklyn was thick and even hotter than before, Clary felt like she was swimming through boiling soup as she ran home. She had to stop at a red light, and jumped up and down on the balls of her feet as she waited for it to switch, watching the cars speed by irritatingly.
As she reached the street near her house, she saw their second-floor windows were lit up, which should've been a sign that her mom was home. Yet for some reason her stomach still tightened with dread as she went through the entryway.
Her sense of dread only increased when she went up the stairs and saw their door was unlocked, ajar, as a faint triangle of light spilled from it. When she pushed the door open, she saw their apartment looked like a hurricane had gone on inside it. Everything was ransacked, broken and misplaced, the books were strewn across the living room and Jocelyn's handmade cushions looked like they'd been literally torn apart.
"Mom?" Clary shrieked as she ran over to the kitchen, her panic only increasing as she looked around, fearing the worst "Mom! Where are you?"
All the cabinet doors were open, and a bottle of Tabasco laid shattered on the floor, the red, gooey substance spilling across the tiles. Clary's heart was racing, her amygdala fully awake with a sense of immediate danger, but all she cared about was finding her mother.
It looked like her mother's room had been spared, since everything was where it was supposed to be. Behind her a sharp noise of something being knocked over startled her, stopping her on her tracks and freezing the blood in her veins. The noise was then followed by a slithering noise, the very one that she heard in the background of their call.
And when she turned around, she saw the creature.
It was a hideous cross between a centipede and an alligator, scales covered its slimy body and long spidery legs twitched underneath its shell as it inched closer. It looked like a freak of nature, something that shouldn't even exist. Yet it did. It clearly did.
Clary's scream got trapped in her throat, and she looked around the room for anything that could be used as a weapon. Aside from a framed picture of her when she was five and her mother's handmade flowered quilt, there was nothing much she could use.
She scrambled to close the door in front of the horrific hybrid, but it was already halfway into the doorway. Lodged between the doorframe and the door, the creature twitched and fought to come in, its four beady eyes staring at Clary with a vengeance as she pushed as hard as it could to try and get the door to close.
"Stop it! Just leave me alone" she cried at the creature, obviously not expecting a response
And then the craziest thing happened. Like a hundred-legged creature from the depths of hell roaming around her apartment wasn't crazy enough, the thing actually answered her.
"Human" it sounded more like a hiss, like a low whisper than a voice "Girl. Eat"
The sound and words startled Clary so bad she actually let go of the door, and the creature came flying into the bedroom, landing directly on top of her, its slimy drool dripping on her neck, and its numerous legs tickling her sides.
"No!" she shouted as she fought to keep its gaping jaws away from her face, overcome by disgust. But the creature was even heavier than it looked, and her arms were quickly getting tired, its pointy teeth only inches away from her face, as her whole life started flashed in front of her eyes.
And just when it looked like all hope was lost, a dark figure came rushing into the hallway, a slender tall silhouette with long hair. Clary had to give it to her, running around in those 5 inch shoes was a prowess of its own.
Isabelle came in, brandishing her whip like some dark, avenging angel, as the golden coil wrapped itself around the creature's scaly body, prying it away from Clary, who laid there astonished.
A second ago she'd been ready to die an untimely death and now Isabelle practically had the spidery monster trapped in a headlock, her heeled boot holding it down as she plunged her strange glass knife into one of its eyes, blood gushing out by the bucket-full.
"No" the monster hissed frantically, and somehow there was pain in its voice "Girls. Blood"
"Shut up, will you" Isabelle said as she drove her luminescent dagger deeply into the creature's neck, permanently shutting up his talk. She expertly removed the knife and retrieved her whip, wrapping it around her arm, and ran over to Clary, who was still in her mother's bedroom, watching everything unfold.
"By the Angel, are you okay?" Isabelle put her hand on Clary's shoulder and gave her a shake "You were so hard to find. Why did you have to run off like that?"
"I needed to find my mother..." Clary said, still amazed at the girl's skill and at how upset she seemed to be. Absent-mindedly she noticed the ruby in Isabelle's necklace was still pulsing and flickering, just like it did at the Pandemonium.
"Yeah, well, you should've waited for me! What did you think you were doing against a Ravener by yourself?" Isabelle looked like she thought Clary had to be insane to do such a thing. But Clary was more interested in the latter part of her sentence.
"A Ravener? is that what that was?" she asked her
But behind Isabelle, Clary saw some movement, and before she had time to alert the girl, a monster just like the other one leaped over her, crash landing on top of the girl with a loud noise that had to hurt.
"Arghh" Isabelle groaned as she fought to get the creature off her "You slimy thing, get off me!"
"He will not be angry, no" said the second Ravener with a voice even more sinister and hideous than the last "Blood and guts. Eat the warm flesh, feast on the bones"
Clary looked at the grotesque scene in horror, powerless to help Isabelle as she fumbled with her whip, uncurling it and lashing it at the disgusting Ravener. She saw a light source on the corner of her eye, like a beacon of sunlight in the dark hallway. A beacon of hope.
It was the girl's bizarre dagger. The same one she'd used to slay the other monster, who was now nothing more than a pool of dark, corrupted blood. They go back to their dimensions after they die, Clary remembered the girl's earlier words. In a heartbeat, Clary grabbed the blade, surprisingly light and comfortable in her right hand, and ran over to help the girl.
"What are you doing with that?" Isabelle shouted at her as soon as she saw her. She'd managed to get out from underneath the deformed alligator, and was now pulling tightly on her whip, holding him in place with effort. As she said that, she lowered her guard, and the monster lashed out at her, its tail missing her by only an inch, but instead dragging its venom-injecting barb over the side of Clary's arm, who had just walked up to them.
A mixture of pain and shock ran over Clary, as the wetness of blood started to spread over her sleeve. No one had to tell her it was venomous, the feeling alone was enough. It stung and burned like live flames on her skin, and already she was starting to feel severely nauseated, like she might faint at any moment.
"Clary?" She vaguely heard Isabelle cry out, calling her name once again. It occurred to her that she'd called her name numerous times today, when before she'd just refused. It felt nice to hear her name, who she'd always thought was a bit plain, coming from Isabelle's lips. It made Clary sound exotic, mysterious, unique somehow.
As Clary thought that, she inched closer to the monster, squeezing the handle of the blade tighter, getting ready to stab him like she'd seen the Shadowhunter do. She'd read those medieval epic fantasy books where they slayed dragons and saved damsels in distress, and imagined herself in one of them. Not that Isabelle was anything like a helpless maiden, in fact, she was the total opposite. But it helped to picture herself as someone heroic, someone fearless, like a knight in a shining armour.
In that singular moment of bravery, she plunged the blade deeply into the creature's eyes, which offered some resistance, its agonizing cry booming as blood exploded around the hilt of the transparent dagger, knowing it was finally the end.
Clary was barely conscious once she saw Isabelle kneel down next to her, realizing she'd somehow ended up laying on the floor, her body completely numb by now. In the back of her mind, muddled underwater, she heard Isabelle's melodic voice distorted by anguish, calling her name. The beautiful girl's face was the last thing she saw before she completely lost consciousness.
She felt her lips curl into the tiniest of smiles, seeing Isabelle was safe and sound, and drifted off peacefully. A singular thought about her mother, hoping the Shadowhunter would be able to find her, crossed her mind before the absolute darkness completely engulfed her.
A/N: Thanks for reading!
I'm back with quite an action-packed chapter this time, and once again it was very fun to write! I'm not entirely sure what the rules were on Clary holding a seraph blade, since she's a Shadowhunter but doesn't have the Marks? I'm sorry if that's incorrect lol
I like how Izzy shows a softer side in here than she did in the other two chapters, caring about Clary and whatnot. Not saying it's going to last, though lol I just sort of love the rivalry they had going on at first, so that sort of dynamic might make a comeback. Sort of an enemies to friends to lovers kind of situation.
Also, I'm noticing while writing in the third person, writing scenes about two girls is very confusing and challenging lol it's like 'she did this, and then she did that', so I tried using their names most of the time, hope it wasn't confusing
Thanks so much to clizzyshipper64 for saying they loved it! Clizzy is literally my OTP in The Mortal Instruments, ever since I read the books! Even though they're not that popular :c